Transnet Port Terminal’s (TPT) investment of ZAR5.4 billion (US$760 million) over a five period to modernise Cape Town container terminal (CTCT) is on track for completion of major dredging and refurbishment of the second of four berths by May next year.
The aim is to double its capacity by 2012 to 1.4 million TEU by upgrading all four berths and the Ben Schoeman Basin to allow for larger vessels. So far Berth 601 has been refurbished to allow for 420 metres of berth space to allow for one large 305-metre vessel alongside, and will be fitted out with six ship-to-shore Liebherr cranes.
The facility will also be phasing out its old straddle carriers to be replaced with 20 rubber-tyre gantry cranes to maximise space by stacking six rows wide, five containers high and 30 deep.
“There have been some challenges. Most significant of these is the complexity of maintaining uninterrupted operations at the container terminal while it is effectively a construction site,” said TPT Western Province Terminal executive, Velile Dube in a Cape Town-based iAfrica.com but added, it is well under way to transforming the CTCT into a modern four-berth facility.
It boasts access to 864 reefer plug points in reefer block 1 with an overall expansion programme of three reefer stacks with a total of 2712 reefer points served by gantry cranes.
The surge in handling equipment of new cranes has required a push on training with 33 personnel trained as operators of lifting equipment (OLEs) it now has 120 newly trained OLEs with more in the pipeline for ship-to-shore cranes next January.
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Source: shippinggazzete, September 29, 2010;